"Your guns weren't big enough to beat LeBron James": Gilbert Arenas believes Kevin Durant's Warriors move saved Steph Curry's legacy
Gilbert Arenas believed Kevin Durant's move to the Golden State Warriors saved Steph Curry's legacy. The former Washington Wizards guard minced no words in his take on his latest episode of the 'Gil's Arena' podcast where the crew discussed Durant's time in Golden State.
Arenas leaped to Durant's defense after the 2x NBA champion copped major flak for joining a team that beat them in the 2016 playoffs. To the former, the Warriors, a 73-9 team in the 2015-16 season added additional firepower just to beat LeBron James.
“They [Golden State Warriors] are the 73-9 team. Everybody put the narrative on KD for saying yes and not the Golden State Warriors for going out and getting a bazooka. Your guns weren’t big enough to beat LeBron James, that you got to go out & get a bazooka.”
The move to add Kevin Durant to their ranks paid off as they won two championships with the forward on the side. The Warriors won the 2016-17 and the 2017-18 season.
Kevin Durant on his Warriors exit: "I just wanted to play ball somewhere else"
While Kevin Durant has played for the OKC Thunder and the Brooklyn Nets, his Warriors tenure perhaps will go down as the most controversial in his career. In a 2022 interview with the Washington Post, he had an honest answer to why he headed East after his time with the Warriors.
“I just wanted to play ball somewhere else. But a lot of people see it as I’m chasing something. And I think it probably stems when I said, ‘I don’t want to be number two no more.’ I was number two in high school, in the draft. But what I had to explain to people was, I had just lost in the Finals. I wanted to go back and win the Finals. It wasn’t about: ‘I want to be the best ever. I want to be better than LeBron or [Michael Jordan].’ I don’t give a s**t about that."
All eyes will now shift to Kevin Durant and Devin Booker to see if they can lead the Phoenix Suns to their maiden championship. The Suns made the playoffs in both their seasons after acquiring Durant, but are yet to go the distance. As for Curry, he and Golden State will look to shed the midfield leaders tag this season as their new-look side hopes for a deep playoff run.